Vikings

The word 'Allah' opens the possibility that some Vikings were Muslim

(Newser) -
Is it possible some Vikings were Muslim? That's a question the National Post is asking following the discovery of Viking funeral garb embroidered with ancient Arabic characters spelling "Allah." Annika Larsson of Uppsala University tells the BBC she was examining fragments of clothing discovered in 1,000-year-old...
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Viking artifact, found on mountain, is just a little rusty

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A Norwegian archaeologist says a well-preserved, if rusty, iron sword dating to the Viking era has been found in southern Norway. Lars Holger Piloe says the nearly 3-foot-long sword was found slid down between rocks with the blade sticking out, and may have been left by a person who got...
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'Ultimate' grave was long thought to have held a man, but belonged to a woman

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Ancient tales of fierce female Vikings fighting alongside men appear to be rooted in truth, according to archaeologists in Sweden. One of the most impressive graves in a burial ground near Birka, a major Viking settlement, has turned out to be that of a woman believed to have been a...
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It's a good thing Leif Eriksson didn't run into the US Coast Guard

(Newser) -
It was an epic journey that was to end with the world's largest Viking ship making a tour of the Great Lakes. Now the ship might have to make a U-turn. The Draken Harald Harfagre—which made stops in the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland while...
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They may have made it further into America than we ever knew

(Newser) -
A "high-tech Indiana Jones" may have just done what no one else has been able to for 55 years: find a second Viking settlement in North America, the Washington Post reports. "Typically in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote in the history books, but what...
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It suggests Danes became Christians earlier than thought

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Denmark's Dennis Fabricius Holm got off work early on March 11 and decided to go for a stroll with his metal detector near the town of Aunslev. "Suddenly I hit upon something," he tells national broadcaster DR , per the Local . "Ever since I turned over the...
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And it's in surprisingly good condition

(Newser) -
Goran Olsen was enjoying a leisurely hike recently in Norway when he stopped near the fishing village of Haukeli, about 150 miles west of Oslo. Under some rocks along a well-traversed path, he made a discovery that's now the envy of every detectorist in Scandinavia: a 30-inch wrought-iron Viking...
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They apparently had a lucrative ivory trade going on: researchers

(Newser) -
For a long time, scientists wondered why Vikings settled in Greenland as farmers, since livestock doesn't thrive there and the growing season is truncated, notes Hakai Magazine . But while speculation as to why they eventually abandoned the island territory range from climate change to soil erosion , researchers now think...
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Colored-glass ring is inscribed with either 'to Allah' or 'for Allah'

(Newser) -
Those Vikings really got around: Not only did they land in North America long before 1492, they may have visited the Islamic world as well. As possible evidence, researchers say a ring from a ninth-century Viking woman's grave looks exceptionally Islamic, Science News reports. The silver ring was first...
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Denmark discovery likely from 10th century

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Archaeologists have dug up a rare find in Denmark: a Viking fortress. It's the first such discovery in more than 60 years, ScienceNordic reports. Researchers were clued in to its possible existence after examining the placement of fortresses nearby. "It was clear that there was a fortress missing,...
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Vikings running back is reinstated by Vikings, says he's 'not a perfect parent'

(Newser) -
The NFL has been rocked by domestic violence allegations, most notably in the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases, but Peterson will play Sunday against the Saints after being reinstated by the Vikings today, the AP reports. As debate rages on about what punishment should be doled out to the...
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King Olaf ruled in 10th century

(Newser) -
A skeleton unearthed in Scotland might be that of a long-lost Viking king who ruled in Ireland in the 10th century, reports the BBC . Archeologists think they've found the remains of King Olaf Guthfrithsson, or at least somebody in his entourage. One of the telltale signs is a belt...
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Ready to Ragnarok?

(Newser) -
Viking apocalypse—or British weather? Experts from the Jorvik Viking Center, which is currently running its annual Viking festival in northern England, claim that the end of times as predicted in Norse mythology will be upon us tomorrow, when gods including Thor, Odin, and Loki will fight an epic battle...
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PhD student deciphers mysterious codes from 12th and 13th centuries

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A PhD student thinks he's deciphered a 900-year-old carving that has long puzzled experts—and it's basically a valentine. The carving appears to be based on a code that subs in numbers for runes and, when deciphered, reads "kiss me," Jonas Nordby from the University of...
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Just the 2nd such site in the UK, dated to 11th century

(Newser) -
Archaeologists have uncovered another parking lot find , only this time it's in Scotland, and what they discovered is best described as a "Thing." Yep, that's the technical term for a Viking parliamentary gathering site, one of which has been unearthed in the town of Dingwall. That...
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Thieves 'used a lot of strength' to remove a first-floor window of Swedish museum

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A forensic unit has descended on a Swedish archaeological museum after thieves managed to steal an array of Viking artifacts—including precious jewelry—early today. "The thieves got in through a window on the first floor which they used a lot of strength to remove and which subsequently broke,...
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Archeologists piece together clues from ancient burial site

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Sleuthing archeologists think they've figured out a grisly characteristic of the Vikings: They buried slaves with their owners—after chopping off the servants' heads. As USA Today explains, the theory comes from a gravesite dating back about 1,200 years on an island off the Norwegian Sea. Some of...
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Vikings apparently not the first to reach Faroe Islands: archaeologists

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Vikings may have reached the Faroe Islands some 1,200 years ago, but it turns out that was no immortal achievement. New research indicates that mystery settlers beat them there by as many as 500 years. Smithsonian reports that in 2006, archaeologists found burnt barley grains—not indigenous to the...
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They've been studying crystal found in shipwreck for 3 years

(Newser) -
A shipwreck in the English Channel may have yielded quite a treasure: Scientists think they've found a Viking sunstone, the mythical navigational aid Viking mariners used to locate the sun and traverse the sea before compasses were developed. A crystal found in the wreck of a British ship that...
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(Newser) -
The Vikings used a so-called sunstone to magically determine the position of the sun, even on cloudy days or when it was below the horizon line. But a new study says that sunstone wasn't so much magic as real, reports the Telegraph . The stone was a kind of transparent,...
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